The Diamond Cross Mystery Part 42

"Just as I thought," the colonel whispered to himself.

Keeping the tool-house between himself and the man now nervously pacing the platform, the colonel walked rapidly away from the station, in the direction taken by the boy.

The boy's legs were short and vigorous, the colonel's long and no less muscular, and, thanks to his devotion to Walton, which had taken him tramping many miles over hilly trails, as well as across level meadows, the old detective was soon able to overtake the lad, and at a point impossible of observation from the station.

"I say!" called the colonel.

The boy stopped, and looked back questioningly.

"Did you tell him where the best fishing was?" asked the colonel.

"Fishing? Who?"

"The gentleman who gave you that note. Is it possible he didn't mention fishing?"

"Naw! He didn't say nothin' about it. He just give me this letter, and--"

"Very likely he forgot about the fishing part," and the detective smiled grimly. "Let me see it just a moment."

Without hesitation the boy handed it over. Thought was hardly more rapid than the colonel's perusal of the missive, and, as he gave it back to the boy, he remarked:

"It's all right. I didn't make any mistake. Now hurry, and you needn't come back to the station right away."

"But he told me to bring him an answer."

"Oh, did he? Well, then I'll wait for you in the village and you can let me see it first. Then I'll know all about the fishing and I can be on hand with my friend. Trot along, Sonny. I'll meet you in the village when you get the answer to the note. Then I'll know just where to go fishing. How is it around here? Are there any good streams?"

"Are there? Say, I've caught some of the biggest chubb--"

"Ah, I thought I wasn't mistaken in thinking you a pupil in the school of Izaak Walton."

"Isaac Walton? Huh! That ain't our teacher's name!"

"No, I suppose not," and the colonel smiled. "Well, hurry along Sonny, and here's an extra quarter for you, I'll follow you and you can let me see the answer before you go back to my friend. It would be too bad if he and I went fishing in separate places. I want to be with him."

"Where's your hooks and line?" asked the boy.

"Oh, I have them in my pocket--the hooks and line," and the colonel grimly tapped a pocket wherein something clicked metallicly.

"You can cut a pole in the woods," said the boy. "I've done it lots of times."

"Of course," agreed the colonel, smiling. The boy sped away over the fields. The detective followed more slowly until he reached the collection of houses, and there he strolled along, inspecting the different dwellings as though attracted by the quaint old village street.

It was not long before the boy returned, an envelope held conspicuously in his hand. He smiled as he caught sight of the colonel.

The shadows were lengthening.

"It's too late for fishing now," observed the boy as, unwittingly, he handed over the missive. "That is, unless you're going to set night lines."

"I may have to do that," the detective agreed. "But it won't be quite dark yet for some time."

He glanced quickly at the envelope. It bore no address on its plain, white surface, and under pretence of turning, so as to take advantage of the last golden glow in the west, the colonel quickly read the letter. As he did so a look, almost of fright, came over his face.

"I wonder if she'll keep her word," he murmured. "I wonder--"

He slipped the letter quickly into another plain envelope, one of a miscellaneous collection of papers in his pocket, and returned it to the boy, retaining the covering he had been obliged to tear open, for it had been sealed.

"There you are," he said. "And you needn't say anything to my friend about the fishing. I want to surprise him. Just don't say anything about me.

"And here's half a dollar, Sonny. Could I hire you to take me to that brook you spoke of, where you say there are such big fish?"

"Sure you could," the boy answered eagerly, as he pocketed the money.

"I know a lot about fishing."

"All right. I may call on you. Trot along now, and remember--don't say anything. This is to be a surprise!"

"Sure, I know," and with a precocious wink the lad pa.s.sed on into the ever lengthening shadows.

"I think," observed the colonel to himself, as he watched the boy making his way back toward the station, "that I'll make a little change in the old saying, and _follow_ the woman instead of _looking_ for her, since I know where she is already."

Back then to the peaceful little village went the fisherman, and, reaching the house where the boy had left the note, taking therefrom its answer, Colonel Ashley waited with all the patience that might characterize a waiting beside some fishing stream.

But his patience was not tried long, for presently a veiled woman emerged from the house. She walked away rapidly the detective following unseen.

"She is going to meet him, just as she promised in the note, though it must be galling to her pride," murmured the old detective. "I wonder if she really believes he'll keep his word--or can keep it? Well, I'll be there at the finish, and I think this _will_ be the finish," he went on grimly, as he thrust his hand into his side pocket, where the "hooks" jingled with grim music.

As the woman walked on, she turned now and then and looked back along the fast-darkening streets.

For a moment the colonel was suspicious.

"I wonder if she has seen me?" he murmured.

He gave a quick, backward glance, and started as he saw another figure not far behind him.

"Can it be?" exclaimed the colonel. "No, it's Aaron Grafton," he proceeded with an air of relief. "He must have been at her house, and she has asked him to follow her, to make sure no harm is done. A bit foolish of him, under the circ.u.mstances. But when a man's in love--"

The colonel shrugged his shoulders and chuckled grimly.

"However, I must take care that he does not see me."

Slipping behind a tree, the colonel effected a change in hats, for he always wore a soft one and carried several collapsible ones. Then, b.u.t.toning his coat rather askew about him, to give a careless air to his attire (the colonel, normally was one of the neatest men living) he crossed to the other side of the street and then became the shadower of two instead of one, for Aaron Grafton had pa.s.sed on without, apparently, noticing him.

The woman was still in sight, and before she reached the station the man who had sent the note came out and met her on the driveway. The colonel looked back and saw Mr. Grafton dodging behind a tree.

"He doesn't want to be seen, either," he mused.

Relying on his simple but effective disguise, the colonel made bold to walk within hearing distance of the man and woman, the latter having come to a stiff halt when she saw the man advancing to meet her.

"We can't talk here," said the dispatcher of the note. "Will you walk a little way with me?"